When a diver wishes to ascend to the surface, he normally deploys a surface marker buoy attached to a line. The buoy is inflated by the diver underwater, using either compressed air from his air cylinder or exhaled air, and is then released to rise to the surface carrying a line which unwinds from a reel retained by the diver. The buoy indicates the position of the diver to those on the surface in a recovery vessel and the line is used by the diver to mark the stages of his decompression as he ascends, the slack line being rewound by the diver on to the reel as he rises up it.
Conventionally, the surface marker buoys used by divers for this purpose comprise an inflatable bag which the diver takes with him on a dive in a rolled up state. Likewise, the decompression line is wound around a reel, which he also stores. When he wishes to deploy the buoy, the diver clips the end of the line to a loop attached to the buoy, then holding the mouth of the buoy open, he must inflate it sufficiently with air to send it on its way to the surface and at the same time release the lock on the reel to permit it to unwind as the buoy pulls off the line during its ascent.
The problem with the aforementioned arrangement is that it is difficult for the diver to hold open the mouth of the buoy whilst at the same time manipulating his mouthpiece to inflate the buoy and the reel to release its lock. This can be dangerous as the line may tangle or the diver may unintentionally loosen the pressure on the lock on the reel, which will prevent the line from being released from the reel. In both these cases the buoy may drag the diver upwardly at high speed, without enabling him to decompress safely. An additional problem is that the buoy may be released before it is sufficiently inflated to rise to the surface.
The object of the present invention is to overcome or substantially mitigate the aforementioned disadvantages.